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Could your project use a helping hand? How about a dozen?
When you use our students as consultants, dynamic student teams tackle the challenge of your company's project for a complete semester. Everyone wins: students gain hands-on experience and client companies benefit from the fresh thinking and commitment that students bring to the job.
Matching the right team with the right project is the first step in getting quality results. The Farmer School of Business offers a range of programs that have provided brand consulting and innovative ideas on marketing strategies, human resource management—and more—to companies such as Nestle, Cintas, and PepsiCo. The foundation for these programs was the Laws, Hall & Associates program launched in 1971, in which a combination of marketing, graphic design and mass communication students developed campaigns for emerging or reshaped brands. Ford was an early client.
In the years since LH&A began, numerous Farmer School faculty members have gained tremendous expertise in facilitating real-world classes that give their students accountability for delivering top-quality results to high-profile clients.
One popular course, known as the Highwire Brand Studio, draws its students from marketing, graphic arts, and other majors. After being presented with the company’s challenge, the class divides into teams that compete to provide their mutual client with “winning” recommendations.
The client for Highwire’s London-based summer term in 2008 was Tesco, the world’s fourth-largest retailer. Tesco has since begun testing some of the winning team’s ideas. During last spring semester, Highwire’s work for DHR International, the world’s fifth-largest executive search firm, led to a job offer for the winning team’s marketing director.
The Fall 2008 teams, guided by faculty members Michael McCarthy (Marketing) and Tom Effler (Fine Arts), were challenged by their client Total Quality Logistics to improve the company's recruitment strategy.
McCarthy also teaches the Marketing Strategy Practicum, a senior capstone course providing marketing strategy and consulting to client companies and organizations. Recent projects have included an integrated store-level marketing strategy for Kmart, recommendations for improving Nestle Hot Pocket brand marketing, and development of strategies and tactics for increasing brand awareness of Microban.
Now in their third semester working with Cintas Corporation, assistant professor Linda Coley’s Marketing to Organizations classes also use the competitive team approach to provide their client company with a variety of strategies.
In the fall semester of 2008, Cintas challenged the classes with an “open innovation” project—a model that allows innovation to flow from several directions, rather than just within a company. Cintas chose to implement one of the team’s recommendations, and representatives have stated that they look forward to working with Coley’s classes in the future.
Most of the projects tackled by Human Capital Metrics (HCM) involve collecting and analyzing data, as well as providing recommendations based on that analysis. The human resource management course, taught by Prof. Joshua Schwarz, has handled a wide variety of projects for 30 companies over the past few years.
One of those companies was a GE Aviation, which asked the students to create an evaluation process for its training program. Impressed with the results, GE Aviation approached team members about implementing the evaluation process. Although the students had completed the HCM course by that time, they agreed to do the work as an independent study.
“The students’ commitment was impressive,” says Schwarz. “The client was pleased, and this project led to internships at GE Aviation for some of our students.”
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